In his marine research and painting, Haeckel synthesized two 19^th-century impulses—a mechanistic approach to nature that aimed to decipher the observable world; and romanticism, which delighted in probing the mysteries of inner life. After completing his medical degree he spent a year in Italy, painting landscapes and collecting samples for scientific study. In Messina in northern Sicily, he began to discover and draw new species of radiolarian like the one at right. The tiny, single-celled organisms absorb silica from the ocean and produce highly baroque, glassy skeletons. Different patterns characterize different species. Artistic ability like Haeckel's was still a valued skill for a research scientist at the time, since the technology for photographing tiny organisms like radiolaria was not yet available.